The design of a storage assembly, such as a closet organizer for installation in a closet of a residential home, is usually a difficult and time consuming experience for an ordinary consumer. For example, to design a suitable and desired custom closet organizer, the consumer initially must accurately measure all of the walls of the closet in which the closet organizer is to be installed, identify potential storage elements that can be included in the closet organizer and then sort through and decide among the various storage elements and also potential configurations for the selected storage elements. Then, the consumer must decide which of the individual walls of the closet are to include particular storage elements or configurations of storage elements. The selection of storage elements is further complicated because the consumer must also consider the interconnection mechanisms of differently shaped and sized storage elements to ensure that the selected storage elements can physically be joined together according to rules for assembly of the storage assembly, while still fitting into the space in the closet available for installation of the storage elements.
Although some computer-based storage assembly custom design software applications are available, many of these applications do not provide an adequate level of assistance and checks on the practicability of desired, custom storage assembly design for the ordinary consumer who desires to design a custom storage assembly. First, a large majority of these applications are stand alone products that do not provide any or current pricing and do not have an appropriately intuitive interface for assisting the consumer in the design process. In addition, in some computer-based design software applications providing for online design capabilities, the consumer oftentimes can design the storage assembly using only the design capabilities that are available online, and then must subsequently make several modifications to the design offline. These offline modifications can be based upon, for example, an offline calculation of the cost of certain custom design options offered by a custom design storage assembly seller or manufacturer.
In addition, current software applications do not guide the consumer to design a custom storage assembly for a particular type of storage location using an initial proposed layout of storage elements that can be readily and easily installed in the storage location. The consumer attempting to custom design a storage assembly from scratch, therefore, is likely to quickly become frustrated and not proceed past the first step of developing an initial layout for a storage assembly from which further customization can be performed.
In addition, many applications do not link the selection of custom design options by a consumer to allowance rules for design of a storage assembly that are commonly known in the design industry. These allowance rules avoid design of a custom storage assembly that is non-functional, or an assembly that is impossible to install and does not fit into or optimally utilize available space within a storage location.
Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for designing a custom storage assembly that an ordinary consumer can easily use, that automates the process of designing a custom storage assembly in view of available space in a storage location, that utilizes the appropriate rules for designing storage assemblies that can be readily and correctly installed at a consumer's location and automatically calculates cost throughout the design process.